As usual, I feel that Diaz is trying to have it both ways: he wants to write about dudes who say “Bro, he so doesn’t look like you,” but then on the same page we have “preternaturally sapient” and “phlegmatic.” This makes the whole thing seem more like a show-offy stunt rather than a thoughtful piece of fiction.I couldn’t bring myself to read this yet, but Jon and Joe, you don’t make me any more excited.Okay, I wasn’t predisposed to like this story.One more thing-this feels like an outline of a longer piece, not a finished story.I started this story expecting to be introduced to some Chica who was described in a way that I could only understand if I found a “Dictionary of Contemporary Spanish Slang”–and I wasn’t disappointed! I couldn’t pry myself from the story.

But there’s a daring attempt at synthesis at the coda. This Yunior character is obviously him–the similarities are too striking. Each conflict is shown to be a significant factor in the development of Yunior’s character and a guide to his journey and actions throughout the story. I rather see the story about the guy who screwed up once big time and had bad luck ever since, though he does not have energy to change that luck.I think he’s a great stylist not at pains to make the voice of his characters likable for the sake of it. I did notice a few errors, most blatantly “constantine wire.” It’s concertina wire, New Yorker.

The response is witheringly funny and I don’t mean that in any way sarcastically.I do think that as unique as his voice is, the repetition, only emphasized when I second all negative opions above and yet, like Lee, I also find them sort of entertaining. Print.

Published in an August issue of The New Yorker, “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” is a postmodern affair that should be taken with a grain of salt. I think Diaz can excel at the short story again if he manages to exercise more of his imagination and write something outside of himself (the end of the world story he recently conjured struck me as a dry run that should have been aborted). Magyar Diaz gets his ritual drubbing! The Cheater's Guide to Love: Faber Stories Paperback – October 17, 2019 by Junot Diaz (Author) 5.0 out of 5 stars 16 ratings. Dominican author Junot Diaz's touches on this, in his short story, "The Cheater's Guide to Love," which is the culmination of a collection of short stories called "This Is How You Lose Her." Aesthetically, A Cheater’s Guide to Love paints the conflicting tensions in the life of the protagonist. And I agree that if this doesn’t suit one reader, that is not a criticism.If the New Yorker has to keep publishing Diaz, I hope they’ll have him come up with a new idea…maybe something really earth shatteringly different like a story with a woman character who is something other than a conquest or a foil for a male character! I feel as if he hasn’t made that leap into greatness, or even made the attempt, and it makes me wonder just how many tricks this writer has left. Deutsch The Cheater's Guide to Love Themes & Motifs. It’s as if Diaz is singing his own words over someone else’s song. Junot Díaz. It’s not a plagiarism, of course, but the similarities in rhythm, form and character offer the same kind of narrative propulsion (2nd person aside) and Bringing together past, present and future in our ninetieth year, Faber Stories is a celebratory compendium of collectable work. I thought the story was compelling.